This illness was rather complicated

Dawn had not yet broken.

A thin, frail figure wrapped in darkness slowly approached the riverbank.

A delicate hand rose and removed a wooden hairpin. Long, beautiful hair tumbled down, swaying gently in the faint breeze.

She glanced back.

Tears slowly streamed down her face. Her pale lips moved slightly, then she turned and leaped into the river.

Bang, bang!

Gu Zhengchen jolted awake, dressed, and looked at the anxious Gu Cheng outside his door. A bad premonition gripped his heart.

"Master, something terrible has happened! Zhang-she threw herself into the river!"

Gu Cheng spoke urgently.

Gu Zhengchen's eyes widened in shock. He immediately asked, "Where? Take me there!"

Gu Cheng pointed toward the docks. "The Patrol Office men have already recovered her body. The county yamen's men are there too, looking for someone to claim her."

When Gu Zhengchen arrived, he explained the situation to the county yamen's runner and stepped forward to identify the body. Looking at Zhao Ya'er, who had long since stopped breathing, his heart trembled slightly. He drew the white cloth over her and closed his eyes in anguish.

"When she died, she was clutching her hair in both hands, covering her face with it. Recovering her took quite some effort. Do you truly know this woman...?"

The yamen runner questioned him.

Gu Zhengchen left Gu Cheng to explain and returned to the inn alone.

With sorrow on his face, Liang Family Jiajun handed Gu Zhengchen a letter. "Zhang left a letter."

Gu Zhengchen opened it. Its contents were simple: merely a request asking him and Liang Family Jiajun to send word to the Zhang Family in Teng County, so they could dispatch someone to collect Zhang Shiping's remains. She had included the precise location and identifying markers.

Of her own affairs, she had not written a single word, as though they were of no consequence.

As though even writing one sentence would be shameful.

Liang Family Jiajun sat down and poured a cup of tea. "When she spoke yesterday, I could already tell she intended to die."

Gu Zhengchen folded the letter and placed it on the table. Only after a long silence did he speak. "Brother Liang, do you think the court will make a serious effort to arrest the Salt Rebels after her death?"

Liang Family Jiajun considered it carefully, then shook his head. "The court established Patrol Offices everywhere precisely to arrest bandits and their ilk. But so far, their effectiveness has been limited. Surely the court won't dispatch a great army to hunt down a handful or a few dozen Salt Rebels over one or two cases. This is a deep-rooted malady, not something that can be cured in a day."

Gu Zhengchen abruptly rose, his face frosty. "Then didn't she die for nothing? Didn't those two servants die for nothing too?!"

Watching the agitated Gu Zhengchen, Liang Family Jiajun tapped his fingers against the table and gave a helpless sigh. "We cannot influence the court's affairs. All we can say is that their fate was bad."

"Fate?"

Gu Zhengchen secretly gritted his teeth.

Living was fate, and dying was fate too!

Living well was fate, and living poorly was fate too!

To hell with fate!

There was no such thing as fate in this world, only countless choices and actions endlessly weaving together and colliding across time and space, carving out the present!

Zhao Ya'er and those two servants had died because of the Salt Rebels' evil!

The ones who deserved to die were not them, but the Salt Rebels!

"Where are you going?"

Liang Family Jiajun watched Gu Zhengchen walk out of the room.

Gu Zhengchen raised a hand without saying anything and left the inn. Sun Shiba followed him.

The river flowed quietly southward.

The willows along the bank were no longer entirely green. Some leaves had withered and died ahead of the others.

Gu Cheng found him and said, "The Suqian county yamen will find a place to bury Zhang."

"Is that all?"

Gu Zhengchen frowned.

Gu Cheng said helplessly, "As for the Salt Rebels, the county yamen is willing but powerless."

Gu Zhengchen drew a deep breath.

Indeed.

The county yamen's armed strength was extremely limited. Aside from the Patrol Office, which had anywhere from ten to thirty-odd men, the only personnel available to make arrests were the yamen runners. These men were not permanent employees, but commoners conscripted for corvée service. Not only did they rotate in and out, they had little fighting ability. They could handle a few thugs and thieves, but facing Salt Rebels whose whereabouts were unknown and whose methods were ruthless was rather beyond them.

The Suqian magistrate had been willing to cooperate with the Taizhuang Patrol Office in capturing the Horse Thieves because he knew where their stronghold was, how many men they had, and how many horses. He had weighed the advantages and disadvantages, made thorough preparations, and surrounded them by surprise. If it succeeded, that was a merit.

But no one knew where the Salt Rebels were or how many there were. Conducting thorough investigations to find their tracks would consume considerable time and effort, with no guarantee of results. If they lost men, damaged the county yamen's prestige, and failed, that was a fault.

Taking a step back, if the county yamen truly had the ability to deal with the Salt Rebels, it would hardly have waited until today. Being willing but powerless was not merely an excuse.

"Go make inquiries. See whether the county yamen has captured any Salt Rebels who haven't been beheaded yet."

Gu Zhengchen gave Gu Cheng his instructions.

Gu Cheng did not understand his purpose, but went to obey nonetheless.

"Shiba, I need you to help me do something."

Gu Zhengchen walked to a secluded spot, turned, and looked earnestly at Sun Shiba.

Sun Shiba solemnly agreed. "Master, the Sun Family has already given me to you. My life is yours. Whatever you ask me to do, I will do it."

Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly. "This matter is extremely dangerous. If anything goes wrong, you will die. If it succeeds, the Salt Rebels will be wiped out! Think it through before deciding."

The Salt Rebels would be wiped out?!

Sun Shiba stared at Gu Zhengchen in astonishment.

He wasn't joking!

Sun Shiba recalled how a band of Horse Thieves in Suqian had been captured and destroyed. Perhaps Gu Zhengchen truly had a way to eliminate the Salt Rebels once and for all!

"Master, I'll do it! If anything goes wrong, I'll kill myself. I will never implicate you!"

Sun Shiba raised a hand and swore an oath.

Gu Zhengchen clasped his hands behind his back and looked toward the river, remaining silent.

Sun Shiba asked, "Master, are you taking this risk to avenge Zhao Ya'er?"

Sun Shiba had heard about Gu Zhengchen and Zhao Ya'er. Had the court not suddenly suspended the imperial examinations, perhaps Gu Zhengchen would already have married Zhao Ya'er, and perhaps the tragedy that befell Zhang Shiping, Zhao Ya'er, and the others would never have happened.

"Not for her alone, but for all the lives on this river that have been violated, driven to despair, and extinguished!"

Gu Zhengchen's heart weighed heavily.

The problem of the Salt Rebels had existed for a long time.

Back when Old Zhu was fighting to conquer the realm, one of his principal enemies had been the salt rebel Zhang Shicheng.

At the height of his power, Zhang Shicheng controlled a vast territory, stretching south to Shaoxing, north beyond Xuzhou into Jining, west to Yingzhou and Haozhou, and east to the sea, spanning more than two thousand li.

The lands north and south of the Huai River, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and the other richest regions had all been in his hands, and the main force of Zhang Shicheng's army had been a band of Salt Rebels.

After Old Zhu destroyed Zhang Shicheng, nearly all the original Salt Rebels were killed. Yet afterward, a second group emerged, and these Salt Rebels were oppressed salt households.

The salt industry concerned the foundations of the state and the people's livelihood. Great Ming imposed a monopoly on salt, placing it entirely under government control.

But the problem was that the officials did not evaporate brine or boil salt themselves. They merely controlled the salt-producing households and demanded a fixed quota every month. Falling short was unacceptable. It was just like raising horses: whether any had been born did not matter, whether any had died did not matter, so long as you found a way to fill the shortfall.

If you had no salt, you could pay with money. If you had no money, you could pay with possessions. If you had neither money nor possessions, what could you offer?

Your life.

Some paid with their own lives, some with their families' lives, and others chose to pay with other people's lives. This last group became the Salt Rebels.

More than six years after Great Ming's founding, the Salt Rebels continued to plague Yangzhou Prefecture and Huai'an Prefecture. Though prefectural and county authorities worked to control them, and Patrol Offices pursued them, their plundering and killing had never truly been stopped.

History did not record when Old Zhu addressed the Salt Rebel problem. All that was known was that by the late Great Ming, the Salt Rebels had grown so rampant that they even robbed government vessels.

Yes, they were all pitiable people.

But pitiable people should not harm other pitiable people. If you wanted to rob, to kill, to commit evil, you should go after the officials who oppressed you at the saltworks, or the transport commissioners responsible for salt administration. Failing that, go to Jinling and find Old Zhu.

Harming the innocent was an unforgivable evil.

Gu Zhengchen fell ill with a headache. A physician was summoned to examine him, but could find nothing wrong. After asking some questions, he wrote a prescription, and someone was sent to fetch the medicine.

Liang Family Jiajun looked at Gu Zhengchen lying in bed, unable to understand how a perfectly healthy man had suddenly fallen ill.

Since he was ill, he should rest.

There was still plenty of time anyway. Staying in Suqian for a few days would not delay their business.

Worried he might infect Liang Family Jiajun, Gu Zhengchen refused to let him enter the room. Unable to change his mind, Liang Family Jiajun could only have Gu Cheng or Sun Shiba relay messages whenever anything arose.

The illness was rather complicated.

First came the headache, for which the physician prescribed saltpeter.

Then came persistent cold in his lower back and kidneys, along with accumulations in his chest and abdomen. They sought treatment from another physician farther away, who prescribed some sulfur.

Later still, apparently muddled by his discomfort, he accidentally swallowed several copper coins. This required some charcoal, heated until red-hot, pounded into a fine powder while still hot, then boiled into a decoction for him to drink.

His illness kept recurring. They fetched one medicine here and another there, sometimes even having to go outside the city for it.

After Liang Family Jiajun had worried for five days, Gu Zhengchen finally improved somewhat. They then continued their journey by boat, but when they reached Taoyuan, his illness flared up again. He stayed inside the inn without going out, leaving Gu Cheng and Sun Shiba anxiously rushing in every direction to fetch medicine once more.

Gu Zhengchen urged Liang Family Jiajun to go ahead, but Liang Family Jiajun refused no matter what he said.

And so, with one bout of illness after another, a river journey from Suqian to Shanyang County in Huai'an Prefecture that should have taken only two or three days dragged on for twelve.

Shanyang County was a prefecture-seat county.

Put simply, a prefecture-seat county was a county whose administrative seat was situated within a prefectural or subprefectural city.

In other words, Shanyang County had not only a county magistrate's yamen, but also a prefect's yamen, because it was the administrative seat of Huai'an Prefecture as well.

Shanyang was a vital stronghold, commanding key routes along the Huai River and the Grand Canal.

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally understood its importance. As early as the Second Year of Hongwu, he had established the Great River Guard to defend it.

The Huai-Guarding Tower, the Office of the Governor-General of Grain Transport, the Huai'an Prefecture Yamen, and the Shanyang County Yamen stood in succession along the city's central axis. The prefectural yamen was a new one, built in the third year of Hongwu, when Yao Bin, then prefect of Huai'an, had converted the Yuan-era Yi-Tan Military Commandery and Wutong Temple into its foundations.

A large drum stood atop the Huai-Guarding Tower, used specifically to mark the watches and sound alarms, giving it another name: the Drum Tower. The gold-lettered plaques bearing "Northern and Southern Pivot" and "Sky-Clear Cloud Avenue" that had hung there during the Yuan were nowhere to be seen.

Gu Zhengchen and Liang Family Jiajun walked through the city.

Liang Family Jiajun pointed nearby. "That is the grain transport office."

Gu Zhengchen stopped and glanced east toward the grain transport office, then turned west. Looking at the rows upon rows of homes, he asked softly, "Brother Liang, do you know who once lived there?"

Liang Family Jiajun looked over and smiled. "Those are ordinary homes, aren't they? Even if some belonged to wealthy households, most would have been obscure and unknown."

Gu Zhengchen shook his head and walked toward the homes, saying with solemn reverence, "A gentleman surnamed Zhou lived here. He devoted his entire life to this land..."